China Eximbank agrees in principle to provide loan for 294 MW Koukoutamba Hydropower Station Project

China Eximbank agrees in principle to provide loan for 294 MW Koukoutamba Hydropower Station Project On February 26, 2019, the Senegal River Basin Development Organization (Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Sénégal or OMVS) — an intergovernmental body the governments of Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal created for the purpose of jointly managing the Senegal River and its drainage basin — signed an $812 million commercial (EPCF) contract with Sinohydro Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of Power Construction Corporation of China, for the 294 MW Koukoutamba Hydropower Station Project.

The contract signing took place at the Kaloum hotel in Conakry between the OMVS High Commissioner, the Malian Hamed Diane Séméga, and Ding Zhenguo, CEO of Sinohydro Corporation Limited. President Alpha Condé attended the singing ceremony.

Then, in May 2021, OMVS member states submitted their respective loan applications to China Eximbank for the 294 MW Koukoutamba Hydropower Station Project.

The purpose of the project is to construct a 294 MW hydroelectric power plant on the Bafing River, close to Koukoutamba north-east of Conakry.

The project scope includes a 87 meter-high, 1.3 km-long dam, which will impound a reservoir with a maximum storage capacity of 3.6 x 109 m3, and a powerhouse equipped with four units, which will generate an estimated average annual output of 888 GWh from an expected flow rate of 448 m3/s.

The project will also involve the construction of a 150 km access road and two 225 kV high-voltage transmission lines with a total cumulative length of approximately 600 km.

One of the transmission lines will transport power to Conakry through the sub-regional interconnection substation in Linsan and the second to the Manantali dam in Mali.

The two transmission lines will connect the Guinean electricity grid to the OMVS network, called the Manantali Interconnected Grid (RIMA).

OMVS expects to sell the electricity generated by the Koukoutamba power plant to Senegal’s state power utility Société d’Electricité du Sénégal (Senelec), Electricité de Guinée (EDG), the Mauritanian Electricity Corporation (Somelec) and Energie du Mali (EDM).

The project is also expected to help regulate water flows in the Senegal river, to the benefit of activities related to agriculture, navigation, the supply of drinking water, fishing and the preservation of the basin’s ecosystems, according to the OMVS. The project was originally expected to commence during the first half of 2019 and take four years to complete.

However, as of February 2023, project implementation had still not commenced, despite the completion of environmental and social impact studies as well as a resettlement action plan (RAP).